This timely book analyzes the resurgent influence of the Bible since 9.11, tracking the surprisingly frequent and contradictory political allusions to  Babylon in U.S. politics and culture. References to Babylon reveal much about the way biblical logics (often secularized) mediate a conflicted sense of political and financial control in times of uncertain global markets. Shaped by philosophy, culture, political discourse, and the history of biblical reception, the apocalyptic figure of Babylon becomes the writing on the wall for national fears and ambitions. Babylon reflects, depicts, and shapes national imaginaries around the war in Iraq, torture, family values, sexuality, democracy, citizenship, tyranny, freedom, the market, and the shape of national sovereignty.

The Babylon Complex sharpens our political analysis and makes us think twice about the place of religion in our national motivations.

Fordham University Press, 2014